Maybe we weren't ready for Destiny's Child's jelly, but, my God, we were for Tom Cruise's. And at last, the world got it at the MTV awards this weekend when the Cruisemeister took to the stage and shook his money-maker, giving Jennifer Lopez a run for her jelly-shaking money as the two of them jutted and wiggled to that booty-bumping anthem Get Back by Ludacris for, frankly, no discernible reason.

While some celebrities get more rightwing, plastic or fond of being photographed drunk with college girls as they age, the once-freakishly-controlled Cruise has taken the more unexpected route of becoming a big old extrovert. Perhaps it's the love of a good woman. Perhaps his thetan told him that jumping on Oprah's sofa, reprising a tune from Damn Yankees with Katie Holmes and grinding with J-Lo was the way to reach a higher plain.

Whatever, not since Risky Business has the world been treated to such exposure of the Cruise tush in action as it was this Sunday, interspersed with some distinctly – and I'm using this phrase with caution – camp mincing.

Ostensibly, Cruise was making a homage to his character from Tropic Thunder, replete with fake bald spot and tux'n'trainers combo. But seeing as that film came out two years ago, and judging from the expression of joy on Cruise's face as he high-kicked with Lopez, this was just something he wanted to do.

For devoted Cruise fans, this is all just brilliant. Once it was hard to justify the Cruise love when he was best known offscreen for his rants about psychiatry (anti) and Scientology (pro). But how can anyone not love a 47-year-old man who does hip-hop splits while wearing a bald headpiece and clearly doesn't give a damn how he looks? As Ludacris says in the song, "Get back, you don't know me like that." Well Tom, now we do.